


Akane Tendo Vs The World

by MonkeyMoa



Series: Alternate Springs [1]
Category: Ranma 1/2, Scott Pilgrim - All Media Types
Genre: ALSO not a "Skill Tree Game Mechanics Interface" kind of fic, F/F, F/M, Game Dev Mother, Gamer Tendou Akane, Gen, I enjoy some of those but RPGs aren't the only kind of game out there, M/M, Multi, Other, Slight Scott Pilgrim elements but not an actual crossover, The League of Evil Fiancées
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-05
Updated: 2019-02-04
Packaged: 2019-10-22 13:03:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17663171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MonkeyMoa/pseuds/MonkeyMoa
Summary: Akane Tendo is a normal girl.At least how normal a martial arts Heiress with a knack for videogames can be.Her mother, a game developer who had a frail health, left her 5 golden coins that could only be used on the last game she made and asked for her youngest daughter to find it's hiding place and finish it. Years later, and she had yet to find the fabled arcade machine, never giving up on her Mother's last gift.That is until a girl named Ranma Saotome drops by her dreams as "a shortcut to China".An event that starts a series of changes that forever affect the young Heiress.





	Akane Tendo Vs The World

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first story I publish on AO3, so I decided to start with one that is my personal favorite from the fics I wrote over FF.net, which is actually part of an anthology of fics that I call Alternate Springs, which are oneshots and experiments to bring some ideas out of my head and test waters about some of the ideas.
> 
> Here's the original Author's Foreword as well:
> 
> "Scott Pilgrim is a very important story to me. Both the comic and the movie means a lot for me as I can relate to being a 20-something gamer that is considered a childish person that hasn't grown up yet. Scott's journey to growing up so he can be someone Ramona can love is one of my favorite things in all the stories I have ever read.
> 
> And that's why I decided that a Ranma 1/2 fic with Scott Pilgrim elements would be interesting.
> 
> I can see this being it's own series in the future, but for now I'll just give you this "Prologue" to test the waters.
> 
> I hope you guys like it."

Akane’s last interaction with her mother was when she was but a small child of 9 years of old.

Her mother, an energetic lady full of life and ideas, contracted a mysterious disease that turned her into a frail thing. However, that didn’t damper her drive to create things, play with her daughters and spend a generally good time with her husband and family.

Even when she eventually got stuck in a bed, she always excitedly made some time to play videogames with her daughters. She, being a game developer for a company that developed arcade games and a few console rpgs, was always passionate about the subject and considered gaming more than a hobby, it was a way of life.

It’s something that her children absorbed in different degrees, with her youngest being the most excited about it. It was funny how the youngest child was the most passionate about the subject that each of her parents dedicated their lives to:

The Mother, videogames.

The Father, martial arts.

“Akane, you’re such a tomboy!” she always laughed at how her youngest puffed her cheeks whenever she teased her about it. _It’s just so cute!_

Honestly, it was a shame that she will never get to see that adorable face again. But she could do one last nice thing for her daughter, a life changing experience.

On her last day on Earth, she requested to spend a bit of an alone time with the members of her family, one at a time, to tell them her last wishes. Akane was the last one, face full of tears and snot from excessive crying. She smiled sadly at the cute girl and hugged her back with all that was left of her strength when she came running to her.

“Sweetie, I have a gift for you. A friend of mine, at my request, brought me something that I think you should have.” She shuffled a bit to try to reach a nightstand close to the bed. Sighing for not having energy even for that, she turned to her daughter. “Akane, could you open the second drawer of that? Yes, that one.”

Looking at the contents of the drawer, the young Tendo only a notebook and a sack. Curiously looking back at her mom, she picked the sack (which a tinkling sound) and the sick woman nodded positively. Opening the little sack, she looked over it’s contents.

Golden Coins.

More precisely, five golden quarters, ones especially made to work only with arcade machines.

“Those, sweetie, are special coins.” She started at seeing the questioning look her crying child was giving her. “They only work with only one arcade game, one that I developed myself with a couple of friends. I want you to play that game as my last gift to you.” She said with a gentle smile.

“And were I can find the game, Mommy?”

“That sweetie, is part of your quest.” She smiled mysteriously. “The machine is secured with a friend, all you need to do is find it. It will take some time, my friend is pretty good at hiding things he doesn’t want other people to find, but I’m sure you can do it.”

“Ok, Mommy! I’ll do it!” said the little bluehead. “I’ll find your last game and beat it with a high score!”

“That’s the spirit, sweetie! And please, don’t tell the others about the coins or the game, it would only make them worry about you.” She added, thinking about how the other members of her family would react if they knew what achieving victory on her last game actually entailed. “Well, you can tell Kasumi, but not Nabiki, your father nor anyone else, ok?”

“Ok!”

That was six years ago.

She never really found the game her mom was talking about, nor her friend who supposedly guarded it. She researched game’s name, Brawling Dreams – The Light of The Dreamscape, but could only find urban legends about it and it’s development. It was funny how she, someone related to the person involved on the legends, couldn’t find any reliable source for a location or even an image of the game running.

She never managed to find it, no source could point her to where it was located and she always followed the gossips and conspiracy theories about it that she found on the internet: she went to abandoned warehouses, visited videogames museums, tried to find “ghost arcade places”, and so on and so on. Her quest led her to many adventures with her two best friends, sure, but she always only met frustration at the end of them.

But she never gave up, no matter how much her eldest sister, Yuka or Sayuri insisted that she should just let it go. She would never give up until she finally encounters the last game her mom made for her to play.

====↑↑↓↓←→←→BA====

She was in a dark place illuminated only by some glowing of the screens of many machines. She noticed how some of the games were games she played on actual Arcade machines, but a lot of them didn’t really make sense as she was pretty sure that those where console exclusives or mobile games for cellphones.

All of them, however, where games she did actually play.

She recognized this dream.

It was the one where she finally found the place where the mysterious “Last Game” her mom left behind was located. She would walk around among the machines until she finds the one, the cabinet is always different, with some illustration on the sides that was always random and fuzzy. When she finally spends one of her quarters and push one of the buttons, she will wake up and be frustrated for the rest of the day.

At least that’s how it usually goes, she wonders. She, at that moment, is weirdly aware of the dream, as if she isn’t actually dreaming but still felt that little sleepy feeling that indicated that she was still in her warm bed.

“Hey, neat place!” said a voice she never heard before.

Startled, Akane turned around to see the other person on this place:

A pigtailed redhead with a smile on her face was walking around the place. She was dressed in a red cheongsam that did just enough to cover her modesty, black kung fu slippers with no socks completed the ensemble. Weirdly enough, she was dragging a very big and fat black and white creature that one would identify as a panda. If pandas could use a karate gi and glasses, that is.

Also, it was unconscious and if the melon sized bump on it’s head was any indication, the redhead was responsible for that.

But Akane had weirder dreams, only because this one was very lucid it didn’t mean that it would stop it’s bizarre nature.

“Ah, you, over there!” Akane’s musings where interrupted when the smiling redhead excitedly approached her without a care about the panda’s overall well-being. Stunned by the dream character actually trying to interact with her, the girl easily reached her and stopped in respectable, but still a bit too friendly, distance. “You’re the one hosting, right?”

“Huh? Hosting?”

“The one having the dream.” She explained as if she was explaining something to a child.

“Uh, yeah, sure. I guess?” The other girl smiled brightly.

“Great! I’m Ran- I mean, just Ran, yeah! Ran Saotome!” She said nervously while extending her hand.

“Uh, Akane Tendo.” She shooked the other girl’s hand, who got more excitedly and used her two hands to shake it even more energetically. She turned to look around a bit and whistled for a bit before speaking again.

“Man, this is a nice place your brain cooked. Did ya play all of ‘em? I’ve never played videogames, my Old Man says they’re time wasters, but honestly, if someone’s put time and sweat on making something like that, is it really a waste of time?” She sure was talking a lot, the bluehead mused, which made Akane confused.

Was this girl a fruit of her imagination or not? She sure isn’t acting as a npc on a dream.

“Hey, so, I’m just passing by because I need to go to China and your dreamscape is just perfect for that!” she said with a smiled, as if Akane could make sense of what she was talking about. “My Old Man,” she said with a distaste while point to the unconscious panda, “wanted to swim all the way there! Can you believe this guy!? I mean, I always knew he was insane since the neko-ken bs he put me through, if he wasn’t the only family I have left, I would’ve ditched him somewhere in the mountains.” She completed with a dark gaze to the distance.

While a little confused by this apparition, the Tendo girl could relate to daddy issues, giving how her own father developed a complex about training other people since her mother died, to the point that he didn’t even train his own daughter anymore. To him, hitting his “precious baby daughter” was a torture.

To himself.

“Oooooh, what is that one over there?” Ran said, again interrupting the bluehead’s musings.

She looked to where she was pointing and sure it was the elusive Game her mother created. However, this one seemed different in that it didn’t have any cabinet art around it. In fact, the cabinet was a bit rough around the edges, as if it was more of a DIY thing instead of an actual manufacturer.

Moreover, she could clearly see the actual game.

There, lighting the room, the demo was rolling on the screen:

ONCE UPON A TIME… *the glowing white words appeared on the black screen.*

THERE WAS A GAME!

NOT ANY GAME,

BUT _THE_ GAME!!! *the black background transformed into a scenery of an antique Japanese dojo lighted by the moonlight* (weirdly, it reminded Akane of her own home.)

A BATTLE TO CHANGE YOUR DESTINY! *a handful of character art flashed on the screen* (one of them looked suspiciously similar to the girl by her side, but with a darker shade of red.)

CAN YOU WIN THIS CHALLENGE? *golden coins started to rain from the sky as the characters started to battle each other*

INSERT THE SPECIAL COIN TO START! *a golden coin animated sprite started to spin around on the screen*

As that last message appeared, Akane felt something suddenly appearing in her hand. The familiar weight of the five special coins inside the sack made her conclude something.

_This is it._

_She had finally found it!_

Sure, it was something she always thought whenever she had this particular dream and it probably wouldn’t differently, but _this is a particularly different dream_ , so she can let herself hope that this was actually the one time she found it.

“Ooooh, so cool! So stylish! Won’t ya play it, Akane?” said the _very big difference_ of her usual dreams. Giving the redhead an excited smile, the young Tendo bouced with energy to the machine.

She put a coin on the slot and a punching sound was made. The Start Screen then changed to the Character Selection one. There were a dozens of character to choose and Akane felt tempted to choose the one that looked like her “dream friend”, until said friend pointed something interesting.

“Hey, look, that one looks like you! But with shorter hair, though.”

And sure there was a character like Akane, probably what her mom imagined she would look like when she grew up. Her mom obviously didn’t count on her growing her hair out, but the similarities to the blueheaded girl couldn’t be dismissed. The character on the screen, simply named “Kane” ( _really, Mommy?_ She chuckled to herself), was a teen with short blue hair, using a karate gi not that much diferent to the one the Tendo girl actually owns. A black belt is wrapped around her waist and there’s a band-aid was glued over one of her cheeks, giving a cute and very tomboyish look to the already very tomboy looking character.

Even her character description that appeared on the side when she left the selection cursor over her stated that she was a “Heiress of Martial Arts School, Kane wishes to prove herself to her father as someone reliable and perfect to bring the School to an age of glory. This cute tomboy has a bit of a self-confidence problem regarding her femininity, but she won’t let that get in the way of her true goal!”

Akane sighed, part in annoyance at being called a tomboy by her mom even from beyond the grave, but she also felt a warm feeling of fond nostalgia at being described as a “cute tomboy”.

All those things combined made the decision for her.

She choose the character that so obviously is based on her.

====↑↑↓↓←→←→BA====

After spending three of her five coins, Akane was finally on the last boss.

Each golden coin gave her “2 continues”, which was pretty forgiving in the bluehead’s opinion, though most of her continues where only spent on the last three bosses out of all the characters. The last boss, specially, was some cheating bastard and consumed two of the three coins she used.

The game had an interesting mechanic that seemed to be lifted from an rpg game: with the points she earned from combos and uses of special moves, she could buy “technique scrolls” to learn new moves and combos to use, giving her some time to test them out before going to another fight. And she sure was using all of her skills to keep up with the last boss.

Speaking of the last boss, it was a bit on the… non-descript side.

She could only make that it was a shadow with glowing eyes. While the size wasn’t that different from the other characters (it was not covering half the screen like the bosses on the vs Capcom that Akane loves so much), it was pretty much shapeless. She could see that it used special moves based on cuts and air blades, though.

“C’mon, c’mon, c’mon! You’re so close! This time you’ll get it, ‘Kane!” said the excited redhead. She opted to nicknaming her “Kane” just the character she was playing as because of the similarities. She occasionally turned to make sure the panda ( _which she said was her father, the weirdo_ ) was still unconscious, but she was way more invested in cheering for Akane from the sidelines while watching her play. It was kinda endearing, the bluehead thought.

“SPECIAL COMBO FINISH!” Screamed the arcade computerized voiceover.

“I DID IT!” Screamed the bluehead.

“YOU DID IT, AKANE!!!” Screamed the redhead, glomping the winner.

“And with a special combo! Did you see that, Ran!?” She said excitedly, while returning the hug.

“Oh, man, oh man! I thought fighting games wouldn’t measure to the real thing, but this was so fun!” Ran said separating herself just a bit to look at Akane’s happy face. “Some of these fights even gave me some ideas for actual techniques, I can’t wait to try when I get to China!”

“Oh? You _have_ to come back and tell me how that goes, Ran!” she said to the excited ginger.

“Sure, ‘Kane, you’re my friend, I’ll do that without problems!” she responded with a smile. She looked briefly to the screen, “Oh, look, it’s asking for your name!”

Akane turned to the game and sure there was a screen to input her name to the scoreboards. She briefly wondered how many people actually tested this game and if they would show up when she finished inputting her name there.

Hitting END, she was transported to the scoreboards.

  1. AKN ---- 85789000
  2. TND ---- 84500867
  3. STM ---- 84500854
  4. ...



“Wow, you’re so good, ‘Kane!” the redhead turned to look at the girl’s face, but instead of a bright smile, she found the girl crying. “’Kane? What’s wrong, ‘Kane?”

Sniffing, the girl turned to her dream friend with big tear rolling down her face and snot running out of her nose, but she had a shaky but very smile on her face. She fiercely hugged the other girl, while saying:

“I did it! Finally, I did it, Mommy! I finally finished your game, Mommy… I hope that you’re happy, I know that I am…”

Ran, seemed a bit confused by the entire thing, but she did her best to offer comfort to the crying girl and Akane sure appreciated that gesture.

They kept that way for a while, a comfortable silence only interrupted by the occasional soft sob of the blueheaded girl. Then the crying girl noticed that things started to fade…

“Wait, I—I think I’m waking up…!” she said exasperatedly. “Oh, no, what will happen to you!? Will you disappear forever? I don’t want you to go away, Ran! You’ve been here all the time with me, I don’t want to let you disappear from this reality!”

Ran chuckled softly. “Don’t be silly, ‘Kane. All dreams must end sometime…” she looked deeply on the girl’s eyes. “Don’t worry about me, though. As I said, I was just passing by here, when you wake up, I’ll be just on my way to China.”

Akane still looked uncertain, though.

“Will… Will I ever see you again?” she asked biting her lower lip and making a soft sniffle.

The other girl smiled softly and her eyes sparkled with warmth. It was so comforting…

“I don’t know, Akane. I really don’t, but I will sure try to.”

And when everything ultimately faded…

…she could hear Ran wishing her a good morning.


End file.
